


Innocent Bystanders

by sunset_oasis



Series: Innocent Before Yesterday [23]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Unreliable Narrator, canon with a few tweaks and changes, v short and don't really have much point (?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 08:59:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12339552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunset_oasis/pseuds/sunset_oasis
Summary: Innocent bystanders - they're the ones that usually got hurt first.





	Innocent Bystanders

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

16 years ago –

"What did you think Lily's role would be in all this, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, and Severus's was filled with helpless panic, with desperation that was about to burst. "An innocent bystander while Voldemort aim for her son?"

An innocent bystander, he thought.  _Innocent. Bystander. If that was the way to keep her alive –_

He didn't know why the Dark Lord took the prophecy to mean a baby being born in July. To him, he had just thought it meant that someone whose birthday was in the end of July. But a baby - a newborn baby - having the power to defeat the Dark Lord just seemed absurd.  _Ludicrous_.

It wasn't his place to question whether the Dark Lord's interpretation was ludicrous or not. It wasn't his place to oppose his decision, to ask why the hell a baby could pose such a threat. It was barely his place to ask him to spare his childhood friend who he hadn't spoken to in ages. And now –

_If that was the way to keep her alive -_

"Yes."

"You might realize that, innocent bystanders," Dumbledore said, "are the ones who usually got hurt first."

_Was he supposed to feel enlightened by that statement?_

_But how could he possibly reply_  –

"What about her son, her husband?"

_What_  about them? Was it  _his_ responsibility to care about them? If the  _leader of the Light Side_  didn't have plans, any strategy, was it  _Severus's_  job to take care of it? "Hide them all then –" he croaked, desperate.

 

* * *

 

– 16 years later

"If you don't mind dying, why not let Draco do it?" He asked, roughly, and Dumbledore said something about souls, and Severus wanted to scoff.

He asked about his soul, and gotten back some typical-Albus-styled answer.

"So you plan to have me kill you at the right time, before the other Death Eaters could get their hands on you, and Draco would, what – remain an  _innocent bystander?_ "

"That," Dumbledore affirmed, "would be ideal."

And didn't that phrase just bring back a thousand memories?

He thought about her, her bright red hair and emerald green eyes her smile her fury her everything her  _death_  –

Innocent bystanders, he thought as he desperately wanted to sob, to scoff, to curse the entire world to hell. Innocent bystanders. The old man in front of him had once told him sixteen years ago something about  _innocent bystanders_.

Something that lingered in his mind until this day.

"Innocent bystanders – they're the ones that usually got hurt first, headmaster," he said, sharp and pained and angry. "As you've once told me."

Dumbledore just looked at him calmly. "I trust you'll do better in protecting them this time."

 

* * *

 

The snake bit hurt like hell. He could feel Nagini's venom spreading through his veins, taking control him bit by bit.

Innocent bystanders were the ones who usually got hurt first – and double agents were the ones who lived until they've outlived their usefulness.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [tumblr](http://ff-sunset-oasis.tumblr.com)


End file.
